Enable Banking Client (enablebanking-client)

A lightweight, production-ready Python CLI tool to connect to European banks (ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, Revolut, N26, Nordea, and 2,500+ others) to fetch account balances and transaction ledgers via the Enable Banking PSD2 Open Banking API.

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1. Prerequisites: Enable Banking Setup

Enable Banking provides free open-banking access for personal testing and developer integration under European PSD2 regulations.

1. Sign Up & Open the Control Panel:

   • Go to Enable Banking Control Panel.
   • Sign in or create an account.

2. Generate your RSA Key Pair: Run the following in your terminal to generate a 4096-bit private key and self-signed certificate:

   openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout private.pem -out public.crt -days 365 -nodes -subj "/CN=enablebanking-client"

   Keep private.pem safe! Never commit it to GitHub.

3. Register an Application:

   • In the Applications Control Panel, click "Create application" (or use the API).
   • Set Environment to PRODUCTION.
   • Choose service: Account Information (AIS).
   • Upload your public.crt certificate.
   • Set a Redirect URL (e.g. https://localhost/callback or your own domain).
   • Add your IBAN under Linked accounts (Enable Banking operates in restricted mode for sandbox/developer accounts until un-restriction is requested).

4. Note Your Application ID: Once created, you will receive an Application ID (kid / UUID, e.g. e82f6e88-f0e8-4634-be3d-136c93faae9d).

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2. Installation & Setup

Ensure you have uv installed:

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/enablebanking-client.git
cd enablebanking-client

# Setup the virtual environment and install dependencies:
uv sync

(Note: In uv, uv sync manages the virtual environment and installs the dependencies declared in pyproject.toml).

Configure Credentials:

Copy .env.example to .env:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your details:

ENABLE_BANKING_APP_ID="YOUR_APP_ID"
ENABLE_BANKING_REDIRECT_URL="https://yourdomain.com/callback"
ENABLE_BANKING_KEY_PATH="private.pem"

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3. Usage Guide

You can run commands using uv run python enable_banking.py (or activate .venv and run python enable_banking.py):

Discover Supported Banks

Check available banks for your country (e.g. NL, DE, FR, FI, ES, etc.):

uv run python enable_banking.py banks --country NL

Step 1: Initiate Bank Authorization (Every 180 Days)

PSD2 regulations require Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) with your bank once every ~180 days:

# Authorize default bank (configured in .env or defaults to ABN AMRO):
uv run python enable_banking.py auth

# Or specify a different bank / country explicitly:
uv run python enable_banking.py auth --bank "ING" --country "NL"
uv run python enable_banking.py auth --bank "Revolut" --country "NL"

• Open the printed link in your web browser.
• Log into your bank and grant permission for your account.
• Paste the redirected callback URL directly into the interactive prompt (or press Enter to finish later).

Step 2: Complete Session Authorization (If not done interactively)

Copy either the code or the full redirected URL and run:

uv run python enable_banking.py session --code "<PASTE_CODE_OR_URL_HERE>"

This stores your active session ID and linked account UIDs in session.json.

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Querying Data (Autonomous & Scriptable)

Once authorized, no further browser interactions or phone approvals are needed until consent expires:

• Check Current Balances:

  uv run python enable_banking.py balances

• Export Transactions to CSV:

  uv run python enable_banking.py transactions --days 90 --csv transactions.csv

• Check Active Session & Expiration Date:

  uv run python enable_banking.py session

  Inspects the active session and prints the session JSON (look at access.valid_until to see when consent expires).

• Output Consolidated JSON (Ideal for Scripts & AI Agents):

  uv run python enable_banking.py json --days 30

  Returns a single structured JSON payload combining account balances and transaction history in one call, designed for LLMs, personal dashboards, and automated tools.

Note

Consent Lifecycle (PSD2 180-Day Rule): Under European PSD2 regulations, bank access consents expire periodically (typically every 180 days). You can check your remaining validity at any time via enable_banking.py session. When consent expires, re-run uv run python enable_banking.py auth to renew permissions with your bank and re-authorize the session.

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4. Running Tests

Unit tests are implemented with pytest and responses to mock HTTP interactions and verify JWT signing, config loading, session persistence, pagination, and CSV exports:

# Run the test suite
uv run pytest -v

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5. Security & Privacy

• Never commit .pem, .crt, .env, session.json, or exported .csv files to version control.
• An inclusive .gitignore is provided to keep your personal banking data and private keys local.
• For reference on the underlying protocol, see the official Enable Banking API Reference & Flow Diagrams.
• Official multi-language examples and Python sample code: enablebanking-api-samples.